Smoking isn't that much fun. It's not Cannabis or Ecstacy, even if this more dangerous than either. Having to get your fix every few hours is different to something you do once or twice a night.The problem is, banning smoking will not stop people doing it. Just like drugs, it will carry on but you will have to buy on the black market. Who knows what dubious contents they will contain? A few years ago fake cigarettes were making their way into the system and, unknowingly, being sold at major outlets as genuine. I believe somehow they stopped that sort of thing happening.
What are the penalties going to be if you are caught after they have been banned and who is going to enforce them?
Fines? "Sorry guv', can't afford to pay it."
Jail? How long for? Would probably cost more than leaving them to smoke.
Where would the money come from to pay for keeping someone in prison? Higher taxes, be it personal or indirect. Who is going to be happy to pay higher taxes to fund an unworkable scheme?
And finally, a few years ago the ONS declared that tax collected from tobacco and alcohol actually outstripped the costs of treatment by the NHS for illnesses caused by these substances.
LolPlaying devil's advocate the high is so much better. Personal choice is a thing after all.
For the record I would be unamused by either and more by IV drug use. I can't think of any legal activity that is even close to smoking, can you? The reason I mentioned Heroin use is it's the only thing I can come up with that's vaguely comparable in terms of how likely it is to kill you.
It's a death thing.More addicts give up heroin than fags
Is it? Apparently in the US they thought 900,000 used heroin in 2020 and 13,000 died from it. That's 1 in 30.It's a death thing.
TEVA, an Israeli pharmaceutical firm, has been fined four billion dollars for promoting opioids in the USA - if governments wanted to ban smoking then they'd just make it illegal; while substantial tax revenues are used by the exchequer to subsidise the NHS i doubt they will do anything other than put more tax on tobacco products.I often ponder on the fact that Perdue Pharma chose to release Oxycontin & didn't become just another tobacco supplier . . . .
They would have made just as many $BILLIONS without all the hassle.